Enhancing Web Presence: Strategies and Goals in Electronic Commerce
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Presentation Transcript
Chapter 8 Strategies for Marketing, Sales, and Promotion Electronic Commerce
Objectives • Establishing an effective business presence on the Web • Web promotion techniques • Meeting the needs of web site visitors • Web site design usability testing • Identifying and reaching customers on the web
Objectives • Effective Web marketing approaches • Elements, strategies, and costs of branding • Web business models for selling
Creating an Effective Web Presence • Presence • Public image it conveys to stakeholders • Stakeholders • Include customers, suppliers, employees, stockholders, neighbors, and the general public • Internet increases importance of presence • Only contact a customer might have with company is with the company web site • Can be critical even for the smallest and newest company
Identifying Web Presence Goals • A firm’s physical location rarely is image-driven • Physical location must satisfy many other business goals unrelated to image and presence • Web sites can perform many image-enhancing tasks effectively • Businesses must decide which tasks their Web site must accomplish and which tasks are the most important to include
Achieving Web Presence Goals • Goals associated with effective web sites include: • Attracting visitors • Making the site interesting to explore • Creating a positive image consistent with the company’s desires • Reinforcing already held positive images regarding the company
Toyota Web Presence Figure 8-1
Quaker Oats Web Presence Figure 8-2
ACLU Web Presence Figure 8-3
MoMA Web Presence Figure 8-4
How the Web is Different • Companies early in Web history failed to recognize what visitors wanted from Web sites • Often failed to include e-mail addresses or adequate staffing to answer customers’ e-mail messages • Web presence should include: • History • Mission statement • Financial and product information • Method of contacting the organization
How the Web is Different • Christopher Locke • E-zine (electronic magazine) publisher on the Web • Argues for unrestricted online dialog with a firm’s customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders • David Weinberger • Cluetrain Manifesto- 95 theses aimed at major businesses or organizations that use the Web • Firms must use the Web for meaningful, two-way communication with their customers
Meeting the Needs of Web Site Visitors • Why visitors come to Web sites • To learn about or buy a company’s products or services • Get product support for products already bought • Obtain financial or general product information about a company • Communicate with the company or identify who manages it
Meeting the Needs of Web Site Visitors • Web site interface flexibility • Versions with and without frames, graphics • Multiple information formats • Allows users to easily access multiple levels of information detail
Usability Testing • How users navigate through a series of web site test designs • T. Rowe Price redesigned their web site so no more than 2 page clicks were required to get to desired information
Kodak’s Redesigned Home Page Figure 8-5
Usability Hints • Design the site around how visitors navigate, rather than around the company’s organizational structure • Allow quick information access • Avoid exaggerated marketing claims
Usability Hints • Build a site using the oldest browser software on the oldest computer, using the slowest connection, even if that means making multiple versions • Be consistent and clear with design and navigation controls • Test text and color combinations
Nature of Communication on the Web • Two methods of reaching customers: • Personal contact model • Also called prospecting • Firm’s employees individually search for, qualify, and contact potential customers • Mass media model • Firm delivers message and broadcasts it through billboards, newspaper, television, etc. • Addressable media is sometimes distinguished from mass media • Addressable media is directed to known addresses, and includes direct mail, telephone calls, and e-mail
Mass Media, Personal Contact, and the Web Figure 8-6
Measuring Web Site Effectiveness • Different from measuring mass media • Mass media effectiveness determined by estimates of audience size, called cost per thousand (CPM) • CPM is a dollar amount for each thousand people in the estimated audience
Web Terms Used in Marketing • A Visit occurs when a visitor requests a page from a web • Further page loads counted as part of the visit for a time period chosen by the site administrator • Trial visit • First time a visitor loads a web site- after that, it is called a repeat visit • Page view • Each time a visitor loads a page- if the page has an ad, this is called an ad view • Impression -- each time a banner ad loads • If a visitor clicks the ad to open it, it is called a click or click-through
Information Acquisition Approaches: Levels of Trust Figure 8-7
New Marketing Approaches for the Web • Traditional mass-market advertising has decreased in effectiveness • Advertisers respond through market segmentation • Divides the pool of potential customers into common demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, income level, etc. called segments • Targets specific messages to these groups • Micromarketing- targeting very small market segments
Technology-Enabled Relationship Management • Occurs when a firm obtains detailed information about a customer’s behavior, preferences, needs, and buying patterns and uses that information to customize its relationship with that customer • Can use this information to set prices, determine needs and desires, and negotiate terms
Customer Relationship Management Figure 8-8
Cdnow Marketspace Features Figure 8-9
Creating and Maintaining Brands on the Web • Elements of branding • Differentiation • Relevance • Degree the product offers utility to the customer • Perceived value
Elements of a Brand Figure 8-10
Emotional vs. Rational Branding • Emotional appeals work well in mass media because ad targets are passive • Do not work well on Web, however, because Web is active medium • Rational branding • Gives people valuable service in exchange for viewing ads • Examples include free e-mail and secure shopping services
Other Web Marketing Methods • Market leaders can take their dominant positions and extend them to other products and services • Affiliate marketing • Web site gives product reviews, description, or other information on a product for sale on another site • Affiliate site gets commission and has no risk
Dell Home Page Figure 8-11
Harry and David Home Page Figure 8-12
Advertising-Supported Model • Used by network television to provide free programming • Problems with this method on the Web: • No consensus on how to measure audiences • Very few web sites have sufficient visitors to attract large advertisers
Monster.com Mid-Career Page Figure 8-13
Other Market Models on the Web • Advertising-subscription mixed model • Revenue derived from fee and it also accepts some level of advertising • Used by newspapers and magazines • Successful web models include New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, Reuters, and Northern Light • Fee for transaction Model • Online travel agents and car-buying services can remove an intermediary from a value chain • Called disintermediation
Northern Light Search Results Page Figure 8-14
